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Indonesian social media personality Ratu Thalisa has been handed a two-year and ten-month prison sentence after making a controversial remark about the appearance of Jesus Christ in a TikTok video.
A court in Medan, located in North Sumatra, found Thalisa guilty of inciting religious hatred against Christianity and disturbing “public order” and “religious harmony”. The case stemmed from a video where Thalisa, responding to a comment suggesting she should cut her hair to look more masculine, held up an image of Jesus and remarked: “You should not look like a woman. You should cut your hair so that you will look like his father.”
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Her comments sparked outrage and prompted five Christian groups to file blasphemy complaints against her. The court not only sentenced her to nearly three years in prison but also imposed a fine of approximately $6,200 (USD).
Thalisa, a transgender Muslim woman with an audience of nearly 450,000 followers on TikTok, has since become the focus of concern for human rights advocates. Organisations such as Amnesty International have criticised the court’s ruling as a “disturbing blow to freedom of expression.”
While Indonesia must indeed address incitement to religious hatred that could lead to discrimination or violence, Ratu Thalisa’s comments do not meet that threshold, stated Usman Hamid, Executive Director of Amnesty International Indonesia.
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The influencer was convicted under Indonesia’s contentious Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) Law—legislation that was enacted in 2008 and later revised in 2016. Though intended to combat online defamation, the law has frequently been used to stifle dissent and limit free speech.
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Human rights defenders have pointed to a growing trend of similar cases. In 2023, a Muslim woman received a two-year sentence for uttering a Muslim phrase before eating pork. A year later, another TikTok user was detained for blasphemy after posting a quiz that asked children which animals can read the Quran.
In Thalisa’s case, prosecutors initially demanded a four-year sentence and have since filed an appeal against the court’s decision, seemingly determined to impose a harsher punishment.